Crimestoppers launches rural campaign

Crime prevention advocate Crimestoppers is
launching a new campaign aimed at giving rural communities
greater confidence to speak up about suspicious or criminal
activity.

The campaign, 'Shut the gate on rural crime', is
supported by New Zealand's leading rural insurer FMG and New
Zealand Post. It will see rural households given some tools
to reduce crime in the form of “It's your call” stickers
to place around their properties.

Rural communities will
begin receiving the material this week.

Crimestoppers
chairman John Perham - a rural resident himself - says the
campaign encourages people to report suspicious activity
with the confidence that their call will be totally
anonymous.

"While on the whole, rural people are happy to
speak directly to Police, there are some occasions when they
might not feel able to because of family connections or fear
about the probable consequences.

"In those situations,
Crimestoppers offers a simple, effective way to do something
positive to improve safety in their community without having
to reveal their identity.

“Every call could potentially
hold valuable information, which we provide to Police to
help them put together the bigger picture of what’s going
on. Whether it’s stock or machinery being stolen or sold
too cheaply or odd movements of people around an isolated
area, every contribution helps to fill in the gaps."

Mr
Perham says calling Crimestoppers is an easy way rural
people can help detect criminals and prevent crime.

Around
35% of all calls to Crimestoppers' free phone 0800 555111
number come from rural areas. Currently, the organisation
receives around 1500 calls and secure online reports a month
and this number has been steadily increasing each month
since Crimestoppers started in late 2009.

General Manager
of Advice & Insurance for FMG, Conrad Wilkshire, says the
campaign gives people in rural communities a chance to play
an active and important role in helping to create a safer
rural community for everyone.

“There are lots of
proactive steps farmers are already taking, such as
installing security cameras and forming Neighbourhood
Support groups. The Crimestoppers campaign supports this
great work, and the work being done by Police, and is
another tool to help protect rural communities from the
financial loss, disruption and invasion of privacy that
crime causes.”

"If people
have information on crime or suspicious activity our
preference is always for them to talk to the Police first,
but if for whatever reason they don't want to do that, we're
encouraging them to pass on what they know to
Crimestoppers."

To contact Crimestoppers anonymously, call
0800 555111 or use the secure online form at
www.crimestoppers-nz.org

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